Washington is flirting with a debt crisis. No one has a plan to stop it

That’s right, the US government is rushing towards a possible financial crisis, and everything points to no one in Washington seems to know how to stop it. As legislators exchange votes for contempt and impeachment, there has been no progress toward reaching a budget agreement or expanding the federal government’s ability to borrow before September, when the money runs out. Clearly, this is increasing the ugly prospect of more than $ 100 billion in mandatory cuts, as well as an unprecedented default on US debt, a situation that could trigger a global economic catastrophe.

There is no doubt that this is established as a disaster that everyone knows is coming, and yet no one seems to have a plan, at least at this time, to avoid disaster.

It should be noted that even the battle lines are not completely clear at this point. This is generating frustration between President Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress, as well as questions about what the House Democrats will agree.

Real disaster

The latest sign of the dysfunction that hit Congress came this week, as Republicans and Democrats continued to falter in several-month negotiations over disaster aid for states recently affected by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, typically a topic that It can easily win the bipartisan consensus, but instead, it repeatedly collapsed on unrelated issues.

For its part, the government of the United States has gone from one fiscal crisis and spending to another for almost a decade. The president has confronted the Democrats for months, including funding for Puerto Rico in the disaster bill, and his administration has further forced the talks with attempts to include the $ 4.5 billion requested by Trump for the security of the border, an action that vehemently opposes the Democrats.

Congress reached a two-year agreement to increase the limits in 2017. If legislators do not approve another increase, the budget will have to return to the levels of 2011. Even so, legislators, and specifically the most important members of Assignations in Both cameras, have been rid of the impossible negotiations before, usually managing to get the proverbial rabbits out of their hats at the last moment.